Tuesday, February 01, 2011

Dayton Patented

Dayton, Ohio has the unique reputation as being the city with the most patents per capita than any other city in the United States. It had over 1200 patents issued before 1868. I have been researching some of them because I find some of the inventions interesting. Dayton is famous for the airplane, the automotive starter motor, the ice cube tray and the pop top can BUT did you know that Dayton has claim to the automatic gate, a wringer and of all things House paint? Anyone who owns a Victorian brick house may find this patent interesting. It is for house paint and is from 1837. We still have flakes of this or something similar on our place. Click on the image to read the ingredients.

8 Comments:

Just out of curiosity, how are you researching these? I tried to look up the house paint patent online (http://portal.uspto.gov/external/portal/pair) but they didn't scan in letters patents back then. ;)

I actually had to enter four zeros before the patent number to even try to look it up (0000438). Our latest patent that came in was near 8 million. I'm amazed that was number 438!

The Wright State University web page has listed all the patents issued in Dayton by patent number. It is a little hard to find but it is there. When I get time I search the U.S. Patent Office website by patent number. All the patents I research are from Dayton. I am looking for some really interesting ones to frame and hang on the wall behind my desk which is becoming my "steam punk" wall in the office. One of the Generation Dayton people thought it would be a cool idea to put some of these patent images on display in the windows of some of the vacant store fronts downtown. So if that happens you'll realize that my influence has many facets!

OK, I've finally caught up reading your blog from the first entry. Hope you can post an update soon. Rumor says you finally replaced the bare bulb in your parlor with a period style fixture. Photos, please? :-)

The Dayton area does indeed have a rich legacy of innovation. In fact, you could almost say that Dayton single handedly created the modern world! But reading patents can only tell you about the past. The future is yet to be realized. As long as the investment community keeps ignoring the innovators, the future NEVER WILL be realized!

Dayton's innovators are STILL as productive as they've ever been. But its economic development community is as blind and unresponsive as its innovators are visionary! With the kind of talent we have here, with the commercial products already designed and ready to produce, the Dayton area should ALREADY be the most prosperous city in the world! The ONLY reason it isn't is the unresponsiveness of the economic development community!

Far too many of Dayton's "movers and shakers" spent their whole career in large, bureaucratic organizations, being trained to not step on anyone else's turf. They spent their whole career being trained to ignore the fact that getting things done in the real world requires going beyond their formal job description. The hardest thing in the world seems to be getting people to think outside the cubicle.

As mayor of the core city, you're not just the chairman of the city council, you're the flagship spokesman for the entire region. You have the biggest bully pulpit in the area. (I wonder how many of today's students even know what "bully pulpit" means.) It would help greatly if you'll use your bully pulpit (publicly and privately) to promote early stage investment in new products.

So far, "Dayton patented" is just an empty catch phrase. Until the investment community wakes up and starts actually investing in the seeds of innovation that already exist, the Dayton area will continue being just unfulfilled potential.

Jeff Putman http://daytonos.com/?p=7801 Top Ten Tips For Economic Development